The home of the cork oak.

1 million football fields – It may seem impossible but on a gigantic surface that big, the cork oak grows in Portugal, the largest producer and supplier of cork all over the world. About half of the world’s annual cork demand comes from the Montados, the Portuguese cork oak forests. Flora and fauna have a natural and ongoing interplay: 160 species of bird and approximately 40 species of mammal are part of a healthy, wonderfully functioning ecosystem, of which there are only a few in Europe. More than 20,000 different plant species feel at home there.

The cork oak has a characteristic that distinguishes it from other plants: its precious bark is formed as quickly and in a thickness as in any other tree. This valuable bark provides the actual cork material. The cork oak is peeled by hand and then processed further.

Pro Climate – Harvesting instead of Cutting

The cork oak tree does not have to be felled for the peeling of the bark because it is renewed again and again and is available every nine years for the harvest again. For example, a 100 percent renewable raw material is produced for various branches of industry. Peeling the bark is another advantage: a peeled tree binds three times as much CO2 as an unused tree. Cork creek forests improve our ecological balance in a sustainable way. In addition, natural cork is 100% recyclable. * Source: Deutscher-Kork-Verband e.V.

A cork oak, whose bark is regularly harvested, binds even more than three times as much CO2 as an unused cork oak. With an area of over 5.5 million ares in Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and France, the Mediterranean cork oak forests bind about fourteen million tons of CO2 per year. The cork levels of Portugal alone account for almost five percent of the country’s CO2 emissions. Source: Deutscher-Kork-Verband e.V.

Cork oak forests form the economic basis for over 100,000 people. In Portugal alone, more than 28,052 people are employed in the cork sector. A sustainable economy: careful handling of the environment is also economically indispensable. Source: Deutscher-Kork-Verband e.V.

There are 24 species of reptiles and amphibians, more than 160 bird species and 37 different mammals in the cork oaks. The forests offer protection to a variety of endangered species, including the Iberian lynx. This world’s most threatened species of cubs is only 150 specimens. Source: Deutscher-Kork-Verband e.V.

Cork? Cork! The harvest of the cork bark: CORK? Where does the bark of the cork oak grow and how is cork harvested? Answer gives this video to the cork oak forest and the harvest. CORK! Source: Deutscher-Kork-Verband e.V.